Frank Lee likes to level up. So on April 4, the Drexel University game design professor will turn a Philadelphia skyscraper into a giant game of Tetris. Observers at the upcoming Philly Tech Week event will be able to play a working version of the famous Nintendo block-puzzle game through a contraption that controls the lights of the 29-story building.
Frank Lee in 2013.
It’s another example of video game culture spilling over into real life, and another strange moment in the history of video games, where a nutty use of technology can create a marketing spectacle. Multiple players will be able to go head-to-head in a Tetris battle that people on either side of the city can watch.
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Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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